Oof, things are starting to feel a bit icy around here.
Overgeared Ep. 4
There was supposed to be a competition between Grid and Euphemina, but the fix was in from the start. Before they could even judge the weapons that both players had made, Grid is falsely arrested for treason. Rabbit sees, however, that Grid made something ridiculously amazing (of course) that would’ve won the match hands down. As a result, he immediately switches sides and recruits Euphemina to break Grid out of jail. Wait, is Rabbit a real person or an NPC? I can’t tell with this damn show. You might argue, “That’s the point! The AI is so real, their words and deeds are just as important as ours!” Nah, that doesn’t work. When the rescue mission goes down, we see both Grid and Euphemina wipe out scores and scores of enemy knights. If their deaths are meaningless, they as NPCs are meaningless too.
Grid manages to rescue Huroi in the end, so the latter gets to become the first player to ever have two jobs. This entire time, very important people behind the game were monitoring the situation. Imagine having nothing better to do but watch players complete a quest. Yes, we watch streamers play games, but not as a job! Even worse, they really put Huroi’s health at risk just to see if the players could complete the quest. It’s absolutely inane. One of the people even pleads with the CEO, “If something happens to Huroi, people will think the game is dangerous.” That ship has sailed, bro. The game is already dangerous. It honestly should be shut down.
The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life Ep. 2
After a somewhat fun first episode, this one leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. We get Lily’s backstory, which is that she has survivor’s guilt. Nevertheless, Rein’s craziness at least motivates her to help him out against the dragon. Yes, they defeat it. Pretty easily, too. He then asks her to party up with him. The weird part, however, is when members of Rein’s old guild randomly show up. They have also brought with them two unlucky souls. Thanks to Rein dispelling the enchantments on their gear, they failed their quest, but they don’t know why. So instead, they’re pinning the blame on the two unlucky souls. Rein’s former guild members outright execute them in cold blood. I’m just dismayed by the fact that our protagonists don’t do anything except offer to bury the bodies. Yes, Lily doesn’t want to start a conflict between the fledgling Blue Crystal and a much bigger guild in Beast’s Fang… but two people just died! How can you just sit there and let it happen? But of course, when one of the assholes demands that Rein hands Lily over, he suddenly finds his missing spine and stands up to them. Bah… I’m not asking anyone to be saints, but to sit idly by and just let blackguards murder people? C’mon, you don’t need to be an adventurer to object to that. In these unprecedented shitty times, I think we need big, damn heroes more than ever, so I’m a bit let down by Rein and Lily.
A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Season 2 Ep. 2
The story picks up where we last left off, so Evernatten is facing a massive refugee crisis. The advisors want to outright deport the refugees. Well, they’re hungry and desperate, so any attempt to do so would quickly turn violent. Desir begs for more time to solve the crisis, but unfortunately, he has no idea what to do. After all, they have no food. Just when it looks like he’s outta time, Romantica finally shows up with a ginormous fleet of wagons, and they’re all full of food for the refugees. Look, I don’t mind hand-outs. I’m hardly an Ayn Rand sycophant. But what’s the real long term solution? ‘Cause you’re gonna run out of free food eventually.
As it turns out, we have refugees because they’re fleeing heavy taxation in the holy capital. Not only that, children are being kidnapped for evil rituals. It’s kinda sad how much fiction mirrors reality, but instead of evil rituals, we just have evil islands. But I digress. And just like that, Evernatten’s lord leads a rebellion against the capital, succeeds, and then becomes the next pope…? Whoa, whoa, whoa, aren’t we moving a bit too quickly? Nevertheless, our heroes got the job done, so Desir and his party will soon end up back in the real world with a brand new piece of gear for their troubles. That’s weird, man. From what I can tell, these Shadow Worlds are like instanced areas — areas that were once claimed by the Shadow World. You can’t rewrite history according to Desir, but you can play a what-if game by going into a Shadow World, then complete a quest chain that offers a glimpse at a happier ending…? But if you fail, then the Shadow World causes the real world to erode…? I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen any game like this. What a strange concept.
Right after the party warps back home, we see a girl with… space where her torso should be? I can’t really describe it. You just gotta see it for yourself.
Sasaki and Peeps S2 Ep. 2
While trying to stop Magical Pink from going on a rampage, Sasaki and Shizuka get caught up in the Death Game’s quarantined space. If you don’t remember what the Death Game is, it’s this proxy war between angels and demons. They can’t fight directly, so they have humans give them orders instead. The only shitty part is that the angels and demons don’t actually die when they fall in battle, but the humans do. So as you can imagine, Otonari is busy killing her opponents in this particular quarantined space. Sasaki finally gets to see Abaddon in action, but he has yet to find out that Otonari is the one issuing the command. I wonder if he could’ve prevented those people from dying. I guess you could argue that it happened too fast for him to realize just how dangerous the situation was. Still, I feel a bit uneasy whenever protagonists just watch things happen.
So now what? Well, we can’t dwell on that, because he immediately runs off to the otherworld, where Elsa has attempted suicide because she was told she had to become the prince’s first concubine. What a mess. Can we handle one thing at a time? It feels like this is a show for folks who have ADD. Psychics, magical girls, talking wizard birds, a whole separate dimension, angels and demons… what else are we gonna throw in there? Why not have Sasaki pilot a mecha while we’re at it?
The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World S2 Ep. 2
I honestly thought I had clicked on the wrong show, because I don’t recognize these dudes at all. Granted, I barely remember what this show is about. Still, there’s a notable drop-off in how these dudes are drawn compared to the main characters. It really does feel like I’m watching a different anime whenever the show cuts to them.
Wait, no, there’s no drop-off. Ray looks absolutely amateurish in his training get-up. I’m not going to go back and compare this with the first season. Maybe it always looked that way. But I dunno, it kinda feels like this is the ugliest show that I’m watching in the fall. Apparently, the original studio that adapted the first season went bankrupt. Zero-G are the guys behind the second season, and looking at their body of work… I can’t say I’ve seen anything impressive.
Anyway, the kids are training. Yup. Just a bunch of training. Ray personally oversees Ariane’s training, but I’m not exactly sure what the program entails. After all, we just get to see his foster sister Stella destroy a giant, three-eyed scorpion in one hit. We never actually get to see Ariane do any real training. As for Amelia, she’s off feeling the “flow of all the prima material” with the fabrication sorcerer or whatever. It’s so boring that I have nothing else to add. I need a cup of coffee if I’m gonna get through a night of watching this stuff.
Magic Repo Man Ep. 3
Welp, it’s the episode where Lent’s overpoweredness is slowly coming into fruition. Thanks to slowly taking back the mana he’s loaned out, he has built up a considerable reserve. Every time he taps into said reserve to invest in himself, he gains a new skill, but he also gets to directly buy skills. Isn’t that just boring, though? He doesn’t have to do a thing. The mana recollection is automatic, and he doesn’t have to train for new skills. It’s as simple as tapping and swiping on his stat screen as if it’s an iPad. All Lent’s missing now is a true waifu, which is why we get a glimpse of a girl who is also being bullied by her party. Ah yes, nothing like one reject for another.
As for his former friends, there’s now trouble in paradise because they essentially cannot be adventurers anymore. No mana means no skill or spell usage. They’re done. They’re going to have to get regular day jobs. Is this punishment really proportional to the crime? Eh… yes, society has a bullying problem. At the same time, however, this narrative is crafted for the express purpose of getting you to side with Lent. There was barely any rhyme or reason to his friends betraying him. Guy was simply jealous, and Misa flipped on him to add a tinge of NTR to the story.
